NIH Won’t Fund Research That Uses Aborted Baby Tissue
“Now that there is better technology, there’s no scientific harm to this, we’re still going to be able to use the science we need … while at the same time getting rid of this use of aborted fetal tissue which so many people, including me, find morally abhorrent.”
President Donald Trump’s administration ended funding for any research that uses aborted baby tissue.
“NIH is pushing American biomedical science into the 21st century,” said NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya. “This decision is about advancing science by investing in breakthrough technologies more capable of modeling human health and disease. Under President Trump’s leadership, taxpayer-funded research must reflect the best science of today and the values of the American people.”
Effective immediately, National Institutes of Health funds will no longer be used for research that involves the fetal tissue of aborted babies. That policy will apply to all NIH grants, cooperative agreements, transaction awards, research and development contracts, and the NIH Intramural Research Program.
The move is a significant win for the pro-life movement, which has long pushed for the United States to respect the dignity of the unborn, whose tissue is bought by researchers after abortions. Under the first Trump administration, the president banned intramural use of aborted fetal tissue, meaning research conducted within United States government facilities.
This time, Trump’s NIH is going further, stating that it will not fund any research involving tissue from aborted babies. The institute frames the move as a significant milestone in the Trump administration’s efforts to “modernize biomedical science and accelerate innovation,” but it comes just one day before the annual March for Life, a significant nod to the pro-life Americans gathering in Washington who have worked for years to arrive at this moment.
NIH funded 77 projects that used human fetal tissue during FY 2024.
But new technology means research doesn’t need to use human tissue from murdered babies.
“Now that there is better technology, there’s no scientific harm to this, we’re still going to be able to use the science we need … while at the same time getting rid of this use of aborted fetal tissue which so many people, including me, find morally abhorrent,” Bhattacharya told Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro.
Research can still use human tissue if it is not from a murdered baby.
“Someone who has had a miscarriage and wants to do a meaningful thing and they donate the tissue from the miscarriage to science, that’s still allowed,” Bhattacharya explained to Shapiro.
Bhattacharya spoke out against using murdered baby fetal tissue in March 2025.
“In public health, we need to make sure the products of science are ethically acceptable to everybody,” Bhattacharya said at the time. “And so having alternatives that are not ethically conflicted with fetal cell lines is not just an ethical issue, but it’s a public health issue. We need to make sure that everyone is willing to take the kinds of progress we make, and so I’m absolutely committed to that.”
It put Catholics and other pro-life people in a bind:
Many research labs use preestablished cell lines that were made from aborted fetal tissue. The original cell lines were designed to replicate themselves, meaning that cell lines are no longer made up of fetal tissue. Because aborted fetal tissue was used to create them, bioethicists and Catholic leaders have voiced ethical concerns about fetal cell lines.
COVID-19 vaccines were made using these preestablished cell lines. While scientists didn’t directly use aborted fetal tissue, they used a cell line created from it.
Well, not all Catholics, because the Biden administration ended all human fetal tissue research restrictions.
Pro-life senators immediately jumped on Bhattacharya’s comments, introducing a bill to block the government from using murdered baby tissue.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) reintroduced the Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act.
The Act targets all parts of the government, not just HHS and NIH.
It looks like nothing has happened with the bill, though.
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Comments
I remember when George Bush told us that his allowing fetal tissue research was going to make Christopher Reeve walk again.
I worked in Biological research. We use aborted fetal cell lines all the time. In fact, we HAVE to for certain FDA tests. These cell lines are OLD. Probably from the 1970s. We just keep replicating them.
This ban will have no impact on how research is done. We have to test things against fetal cells to see if the medications impact pregnant women. We can’t test actual pregnant women, that would be bad.
Does anyone remember the government-paid ads to end littering in the 60’s? The feds should put their money where their mouth is and get the word out to use those miscarried tissues (sorry about the euphemism, I know it’s a baby) .
Lots of D&C’s are done at hospitals and most women don’t know or care what happens to that.
These are the types of steps we should want at the Federal level. Keep the issues of abortion at the State level while keeping the Federal govt out of/above the fray in terms of active participation. Anyone who doesn’t want neutrality at the Federal level from either pro/anti views and wants much more direct action is opening up the door for such to be implemented by the side they oppose. As always, far better to keep the Federal gov’t out of as many areas as possible.
correct
so then why allow the state or locals to dictate??
just prosecute at all levels the fraudsters
thats how you keep people protected
Dictate what? Prosecute which fraud?
Can you be more specific as to what you are calling for?
Every time I turn around they keep giving me reasons that I’m glad to have supported Trump.
who did you support before trump and would you go back to that??
the only healthcare job of the gov is to get the f out of the way so that the people can decide what they want to try to fix the illness
the govs job is to prosecute fraudsters and that right there is how you protect the public
A fetus (a technical term-of-art to socially distance cult followers)… feature of elective abortion a.k.a. Planned Parenthood a.k.a. human rites a.k.a. the wicked solution is to keep women affordable, available, reusable, and taxable, and the “burden” of evidence sequestered in sanctuary states under the Diversity, Equivocation, and Indifference ideological umbrella of the Pro-Choice [ethical] religion.
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